


the grands

by onthighsbelongtotaemin



Series: prompts [24]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Children, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family, Fluff, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Humor, M/M, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 03:38:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8828857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onthighsbelongtotaemin/pseuds/onthighsbelongtotaemin
Summary: prompt: "ontae as grandparents"





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moshiznik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moshiznik/gifts).



jinki sits on the edge of the tub, his pants rolled up to just under his knees, his feet soaking in a bucket of hot water.  grainy epsom salt gently tickles the soles of his feet & he moves his toes through it & pretends it’s sand.  the little boy beside him has his pants rolled up in an identical manner, his toes also squishing through the abundance of white crystals in his own bucket.  

they’re playing “beach”.

it’s almost october & too cold to do much outside anymore. they had gone to a park earlier, one just down the road from his & taemin’s apartment.  they’d bundled the kids up in little hoodies & walked the two blocks with jinki holding minho’s hand & taemin holding gwiboon’s. their granddaughter had pointed at the falling leaves & yelled “eaf!” at them, stomping on the ones that had already fallen to the ground.  minho had told the grandfather holding his hand about the things he was learning in school, his colors & shapes, & sang a song about keeping his hands to himself whose medley sounded an awful lot like “frère jacques”.

it was bittersweet when the five-year-old released his hand & ran off to the slide, the joy of seeing his grandson happy blending with the ache of knowing how easily he was left behind.  a wooden bench set directly in front of the playground is where jinki set himself down, nodding & giving a thumbs up every time minho jumped off the slide & yelled, “did you see that?!”

he pulled out his phone & recorded the boy, turning it over to his husband & little gwiboon who was kicking her legs back & forth as her grandfather pushed her in the baby swing.  a wistful smile played on his lips because it wasn’t that long ago it was minho kicking & giggling in the same black plastic seat.  they stayed until a wind picked up, one a bit too chilly to be comfortable, walking back hand-in-hand again.

now jinki sits with minho who asks him why he has leg on his hair, tells him dinosaurs were the best monsters, tells him that he likes the hulk the best of all the heroes, & says that he doesn’t like pickles because grandtae & gramps don’t like pickles.  

jinki, “gramps”, laughs & ruffles his hair & says they should get out because he can smell the grilled cheese; it’s probably already done. they wipe off their feet & trot down the hall to where gwiboon sits in the cloth chair tie that taeyeon had made for her grand-niece.  her chubby little thighs bounce as she kicks her feet when she sees her brother & “gumps!” come back.  she gets a kiss on the head from him & a high-five from her brother.

minho finishes his sandwich & half of gwiboon’s because she falls asleep while eating, her bit of grilled cheese still clutched in her hand as her head falls to the side.  jinki waves taemin off & slips her out of her chair, carrying her into the living room & placing her on the soft blanket she had been playing on earlier, making sure that he can see her from the kitchen table.

the grandboy makes it another hour before his eyes begin to droop. he was a little too old for naps but he’d stayed overnight at his grandfather’s which meant that his bedtime was a little…flexible.  they put him down on the sofa & step back to watch the grandbabies sleep, taemin leaning his head on jinki’s shoulder, his hands around his husband’s waist.

“i can’t believe they’re minjung & jonghyun’s.  they’re too nice.”  jinki laughs & pats the back of taemin’s hand.

“they’re nice because we let them do what they want.”

“grandpa prerogative.”  he nods & watches the kids sleep, pulling out his phone to snap a few photos. they’ve got about an hour until one of them wakes up & they use it to clean up lunch & have a cup of coffee. it’s gwiboon who wakes up first, sitting straight up & looking around with bleary eyes.  she looks at her grandfathers for a few seconds, confused, & then smiles & stands up when she realizes where she is.  she toddles over to taemin & puts her arms up, giggling when he makes an airplane sound as he lifts her up.  her little hands bang on the table & she reaches for his cup, pouting briefly when it’s moved out of her reach before grabbing a napkin & pulling on the fabric, chewing on it with her teeth.

when minho wakes up they pull out a dinosaur puzzle & put it together, taemin & gwiboon watching while gwiboon continued chewing on her napkin. it’s a small puzzle but minho’s five & it takes a while.  the afternoon passes in spurts of quiet & noise.  gwiboon toddles after minho as he runs around the apartment in a cape jinki bought him at a thrift store, plastic vampire teeth in his mouth, squealing & clapping her hands.  suddenly it was quiet & they found minho sitting on the floor with his sister, reading her a little book that he had picked up when they’d stopped in at a used book store a few weekends back.  jinki snuck a few pics on his phone & sent them to the album entitled “the grands”.

when it’s time for dinner they decide to eat out.  it’s a family-friendly restaurant with crayons & coloring paper & minho only whines a little bit about there being no playground.  jinki asks him to help him order from his special menu on the back & minho asks why taemin doesn’t get his own special menu too.

“he has too many letters in his name.”  taemin rolls his eyes as he pulls the paper napkin out of gwiboon’s mouth & hands her the plastic straw he’d grabbed from the waiter for her to chew on.  they walk around the mall later & minho’s eye light up when he sees the playground in the center.  he tosses his shoes in the plastic bin & is halfway up the little climbing wall by the time jinki & taemin enter the play area, gwiboon in jinki’s arms.  he slips her shoes off with one hand & watches her toddle off, heading straight towards the mirrors.  it’s a nice half hour of replying “yes, i saw!” to all of minho’s entreaties, & picking gwiboon up every time she got bored with the other children; she sat on taemin’s lap three times & jinki’s twice.

they ride the escalators a few times & let minho wander through the toy store, picking up a plastic dinosaur for him to play with in the tub. when they get back to the apartment gwiboon has fallen asleep & jinki is the one to unbuckle her, taemin holding minho’s hand as he walks them to the door.  he wakes her up just long enough to take off her jacket & shoes, change her diaper, & brush her teeth, letting her fall asleep on her little bed in “the kids’ room” still in her clothes.

minho’s desperate to play with his toy so getting him into the bath is easy.  an hour passes quickly with taemin reading him a book while he plays with his new toy. they don’t let him stay up too late this time, their daughter will murder them both & hide their bodies (she’s said so herself) if her son’s sleep schedule isn’t at least close to standard when he goes back home.

after he’s dried up, minho climbs up onto his grandfathers’ bed where jinki is lying down, wearing the same pajama pants as “gramps”.  jinki reads to him with his bifocals, the glasses minho likes to sneak onto his nose because “they make everything look so weird!”, a little story about dinosaurs who like to compete in swimming.  the room is dark & he has a sound machine playing in the corner because it’s too cold for a fan.  soon enough, minho’s head has dropped to his lap & he’s gently snoring against his grandfather’s leg.  jinki turns off the tablet & plops it down on the night stand beside him, slipping his bifocals off & propping them on top.  he turns on the lamp sat there & pulls out his phone, taking a few pictures of minho’s open-mouthed slumber before putting it back & turning the light off.

he carries minho into the room he shares with his sister on these visits, the one decorated with glow-in-the-dark stars & planets on the ceiling & sesame street sheets on their little beds.  a box of toys & a little bookcase sit scrunched in the corner.  he turns the olaf nightlight on & leaves the door open.

it’s the last night of the kids’ visit; they’ll be going home tomorrow after church.  he’s not sure where minjung & jonghyun said they were going, he’d been too busy saying “yes!” when they asked if he & taemin would take the kids for the weekend.  they see them frequently but it’s always a special treat when he doesn’t have to deal with the kids to get to play with the grandkids.

taemin’s sitting on the sofa & he sits beside him, playing with the other’s hand before slipping their fingers together, resting his head on the other’s shoulder.  

“they down?”

“yep.  not even a full book.”  taemin kisses his hair & rests his head on the soft strands.

“i’m so exhausted.”

“i know.  we’re old.”

“you’re old.  i’m still ordering from the regular menu.”

“as i told minho, that’s because you don’t have enough letters in your name.”  taemin snorts.

“we should go to bed.”

“we should.”  they neither of them move, leaning up against the other in a show of mutual support.

they’re still not moving, their eyes now closed & if they don’t do something soon they might just fall asleep on the sofa.  a notion that is sounding nicer & nicer as they continue to remain stationary.  but they’ll need their energy to handle the five-year-old & fourteen-month-old sleeping in their spare room so jinki drags them both down the hall & smiles sleepily at his husband as they brush their teeth.  they snuggle under the sheets, facing each other with taemin’s hand resting on jinki’s.  

“it was a good day.”

“yeah, it was.”

“what horrible thing are you going to do to freak minjung out when they pick up the kids tomorrow?”

“i was thinking of painting minho’s toes.”

“what color?”

“black.”

“that might work.  i was thinking we could streak his hair.”

“color me intrigued.”  taemin rolled his eyes.

“with all the halloween stuff there’s non-permanent hair dye. silver might work.  he always says he wants flecks like you have.”  he reached up & brushed his fingers through the bits of gray at jinki’s temple.

“excellent.  i knew there was a reason i married you.”

“well you did lose the bet.  fair is fair.”  jinki laughed & leaned forward to give him a kiss, falling asleep with a smile. when he wakes up the next morning there is a five-year-old foot by his head & a baby girl snuggled in his husband’s arms.  he laughs & gets up to make a pot of coffee.  they’re going to need it.


End file.
